New iOS 9 Tips and Tricks

The new OS from Apple brings a host of new features (like Apple Music), tips and tricks. We’ve worked our way through the operating system to try and bring you as many of the features as possible to allow you to get as much out of the latest software on your phone without having to upgrade to the iPhone6 or iPhone 6 Plus.

New App Switcher: When your phone is awake and past the lock screen, and you double tap on the home button, iOS will kick up an app-switching interface so that you can toggle between apps, exit apps, etc.Your apps will now appear as apps in a card stack that you can scroll through from left to right.

You can identify each card in the stack based on the app icon and name above it. To close an app, you still swipe up on the card. Now, however, you can also swipe multiple cards at the same time, using multiple fingers. Handoff options appear at the the bottom of the app switcher.

New Spotlight Search view: Spotlight has returned to the left of the main home screen, with a built-in, Siri-powered Proactive assistant. Spotlight is also accessible as a pull down from any home screen. In the new Spotlight view,Apple has added your recent contacts, apps and location-based suggestions, and your Apple News feed.

Better still, Apple has opened Spotlight to third-party developers, meaning you’ll soon be able to get Spotlight search results from, for instance, Netflix, Facebook, Google Calendar, etc. You’ll also immediately notice that the new Spotlight view works with proactive Siri, which lets you tap a mic symbol to audibly search as well as get suggestions based on your preferences and how you use your phone each day.

Disable Proactive Assistant: If you don’t want Siri to suggest apps, people, locations, and more when you use the new Spotlight Search, you can always disable Siri Suggestions (in Settings>General).

Remove apps from Spotlight Search: The new Spotlight can surface content from all your apps, but you can control which apps it can peek into just by going to Settings>General>Spotlight Search. From there, you can toggle on/off exactly which apps you want to include in Spotlight search results.

Tell Siri to remember what you see on screen: Siri can set reminders. You know this. But now she can also remind you about whatever is displayed on your device screen – whether it be a website or note. Just say “Siri, remind me about this,” and she’ll scan the page and add relevant details to your Reminders app.

Ask Siri to fetch a photo for you: Siri can now search your photos based on their information and criteria. Ask her to find a specific photo from 14 July 2015, for instance, and she’ll do just that. Amazeballs.

Shut up Siri: Sometimes Siri is just useful when she isn’t speaking. Thankfully, a new setting called Voice Feedback (Settings>General>Siri) lets you decide when she can use her voice. You can toggle the setting to always on, hands-free only (which works only when using “Hey Siri” or connected to a Bluetoothdevice), or a new ring switch option (which stops Siri from speaking when your ringer is switch is on silent).

Disable contacts found in Mail: If you don’t want Siri and Spotlight to suggest unknown contacts from Mail, such as people you haven’t added to your address book but still appear in suggestions, go to Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars. From there, toggle off the Contacts Found In Mail option.

Add an email attachment in Mail: You’ve always been able to insert photos and videos into emails, as well as use the Share button to email stuff from apps, but iOS 9 has finally added a simple Add Attachment option when you double-tap or long press to see additional options. Just tap it to browse and attach anything that’s stored in your iCloud Drive.

Delete all your emails in Mail: There is a new Trash All button in Apple’s Mail app. Finally. Just hit the edit button and then Trash All to clear out your Inbox with a single tap. Brilliant.

Find on Page in Safari: To Find text in a Safari page, you previously had to tap the address bar, then type a word, then scroll down to the bottom of the address bar to see select the instances in which that word appeared on your page. Now, you can hit the Share button on a page to see a Find on Page option (it surfaces a pop-up over the keyboard).

Disable frequently-visited sites in Safari: Safari displays icons of your most visited websites every time you open a new page. It lets you delete individual ones by tapping and holding on them, but now you can turn them off entirely by going to Settings>Safari. From there, turn off Frequently Visited Sites.

View a desktop version of any website: Apple let you request a desktopversion of a site when in Safari on iOS 8, but with iOS 9, it has added the option to the Share menu. You can also tap and hold the reload button in the address bar of Safari to load the Request Desktop Site option at the bottom of your screen.

Change the look of Safari Reader: Safari’s Reader has a new button within the address bar. It has options for changing the look and feel of Reader. You can change fonts, font sizes, colour themes, etc.

Transit directions in Maps: In select cities, Apple now offers a new Transit view, with lines and stations for subways, buses, trains, and ferries. So, when you plan a route, you’ll see the whole trip laid out with transit information. You can even ask Siri for transit directions. And with the new Nearby feature, you can also get ideas for places to shop, eat, etc.

Sketch in Notes: The Notes app has been overhauled. It now lets you add checklists, photos, maps, web links, and even sketches that you can draw with your finger. Every note has an option above the keyboard that has new menu tools. Tap it to create a list, add a photo, change the formatting, and doodle. And of course, thanks to iCloud, changes to your notes will be updated across all your devices and on iCloud.com. You can even organise your notes into folders.

Save attachments to Notes: The system-wide Share button has added support for Notes. So, when in Safari, for instance, tap the Share button to save attachments, such as a link or document, to a new or existing note. There’s also an Attachments browser in Notes that organises attachments in a single view (tap the grid icon in the lower-left corner).

Setup Apple News: Apple’s News app has arrived (in the US at least). It’s basically a reading experience that combines the visual look of a magazine with the immediacy of digital media. You can follow news from over a million topics, fetch news based on your interest, and pull articles from your favourite sites and sources – including Pocket-lint.

When you open News for the first time, you’ll be asked to select your topics and news sources. From there, the app will load, and you’ll see a stationary menu bar running along the bottom of every screen within the app. It houses tabs for the following screens: For You, Favourties, Explore, Search, and Saved.

Setup Wallet, not Passbook: Newsstand became News, and Passbook has become Wallet. You can add cards using the same method still, such as boarding passes, tickets and gift cards, but it’s also home to your Apple Pay credit, debit, and store cards, as well as upcoming rewards cards from stores like Walgreens.

Select an Apple Pay payment card: When paying with Apple Pay, you can now quickly choose which card you want to use just by double-clicking the home button while on the lock screen. It’ll bring up all your cards on youriPhone.

Go back to apps: When you open a link or tap a notification while using an app, you’ll be brought to a new app in order to view the information in full detail. Now however you’ll also see a new “Back to…” button at the top left of the just-opened app, giving you the opportunity to tap it and instantly go back the app you were using.

Delete an alarm: Apple’s swipe-to-delete gesture no works in the Clock app. To delete an alarm before, you had to tap the edit button and delete from there, but now all you have to do is swipe on the alarm itself.

Hide photos from Moments, Collections, and Years: If there’s a photo you don’t want people to easily see in your main library, select the photo (or photos), then tap the Share button, and select the Hide button at the bottom to hide it completely (though it will still be visible in All Photos and the album it’s in).

More smart albums: With iOS 8, Panoramas and Bursts were automatically sorted into folders. And Apple is continuing this smart album trend with iOS 9. It has added separate folders for Selfies and Screenshots. In our experience, the Screenshots folder tends to always get it right, while the Selfies is hit or miss.

Easily select photos: You’ve always had to tap individual thumbnails in the Photos app to select multiple photos at once, but now, you can simply swipe your finger over a string of thumbails to select photos. They’ll all get blue checkmarks and can be shared, moved, or deleted.

Change Slow-Mo speed: Newer iPhones allow you to record in Slow-Mo mode. You could always change the frames per second, though Apple recently moved that options to Settings>Photos & Camera>Record Slo-mo.

Change video resolution: Go to the bottom of Camera within Settings and you’ll see a new Record Video option that lets you change the quality of your recoded videos to either 720p HD at 30 fps, 1080p at 30 fps, or 1080p at 60 fps.

Zoom in during video playback: In iOS 9, you can now pinch to zoom in on a video just like you would a photo.

Exit photo preview: When browsing your pictures in the Photos app, you can enlarge a photo in the grid to see it full screen, but now, you can also easily swipe down on preview to toss it away and return to the grid.

Create a fancy slideshow: Apple’s Photos app has a slideshow feature, but the controls have been expanded and moved from Settings. Now, when you initiate a slideshow from the Share menu, you’ll see a new Options button in the corner that’ll let you change the theme, music, speed, and transitions.

Search in Settings: The Settings app is full of switches. With iOS 9, you no longer have to remember where they are, because the Settings app now has a search field at the top. Use it to find the switches you need.

Easily switch LTE when Wi-Fi is weak: Imagine you’re connected to the Wi-Fi in your house, then you go outside to mow the lawn, and while doing that, you check your email but can’t get any messages to load. It’s because you’re still connected to your home’s Wi-Fi – and the signal is too weak. A new feature called Wi-Fi Assist will change all that by allowing your iPhone to fall back to cellular data when Wi-Fi is poor. You’ll see it at the bottom of Settings>Cellular.

Enable Low-Power Mode: The new Low Power Mode (Settings>Battery) lets you reduce power consumption. The feature disables or reduces background app refresh, auto-downloads, mail fetch, and more (when enabled). You can turn it on at any point, or you are prompted to turn it on at the 20 and 10 per cent notification markers.

Find battery guzzling apps: Apple now specifically tells you which apps are using the most juice. Go to Settings > Battery and then scroll down to the new section that gives you a detailed look at all your battery-guzzling apps.

Disable keyboard capitalisation: It may seem like a small change, but thekeyboard has been updated to reflect capitalisation. Until iOS 9, whether you touched the shift key or not, all the letters on the keyboard were capitalised. Now, the keyboard shows the letters in lowercase when shift is off. But if you don’t want this, you can disable it by going to Settings >Accessibility>Keyboard and toggling off the Show Lowercase Keys option.

Disable keyboard animations: Apple’s keyboard has a pop-up character animation that serves as feedback when you tap the keys. Now, for the first time, you can shut it off (Settings>General>Keyboard>Character Preview).

Disable Shake to Undo: Apple has had an undo gesture that lets you shake your phone to undo your last action (or shake again to redo it). But if you hate this option, you can now disable it by going to Settings>General>Accessibility. From there, toggle off Shake to Undo. Simples.

Use a six-digit passcode: Apple has always given you the chance to set a four-digit passcode, but now it offers a six-number option, meaning hackers now have a 1 in 1 million chance of cracking it, rather than 1 in 10,000. Just go to Settings>Touch ID & Passcode>Change Passcode, and then select Passcode Options.

View notifications based on when they arrived: Under a new Sort Order tab in Settings>Notifications, you can switch your notifications between Recent and Manual. The latter setting will bring up another option called Group By App. When enabled, it groups your notifications in the Notification Center by app. When disabled, you’ll get a running list of your notifications as they arrive. Handy, right?